Singapore  - Singapore's industrial development group JTC Corp on Thursday awarded an 890-million-Singapore-dollar (594 million US dollar) contract to South Korea's Hyundai Engineering and Construction to build two rock caverns for storing oil on the western part of the island state.

JTC said the first two of the 132-metre-below-ground Jurong Rock Caverns would be completed by 2013.

The caverns would hold 1.47 million cubic metres of oil underground, according to a report by the Straits Times Thursday.

JTC was also to build three other caverns.

Singapore ranks among the world's top petroleum refining centres and is a leading oil trading hub, for which increased storage space is being built under the Jurong Industrial island, freeing above ground industrial space for other developments.(dpa)